CHANDIGARH: Even though Prime Minister Narendra Modi patted the back of Captain Amarainder Singh-led Punjab government for efforts to control the spread of Covid-19, the state is struggling to trace the transmission history of the virus.
Contact tracing, the most crucial process, is undertaken to identify the source of infection and track people with whom patients got in touch before testing positive. Tracing of transmission has become the Achilles heel of the state health authorities, leaving experts worried as it points out towards community transmission, which happens when there is no clear source of origin of the infection. The Punjab CM in recent weeks had been hinting at the possibility of community spread.
Since the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Punjab on March 1 to June 20, as many as 3,952 people have tested positive and the health department has failed to trace the transmission history of 450 of these cases, accounting for 11.38% of the total cases. The majority of untraceable cases have been reported in June and belong to Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar districts.
In the daily bulletin, the health department categorises the traceable cases — contacts of positive cases and travel history — and cases in which the infected person neither had travel history nor came in contact with a positive case are categorised as new cases. On June 19, 87 local cases were reported of which 57 were from Jalandhar alone and 16 such cases were reported on June 17.
Terming contact tracing a difficult task, Punjab health department spokesperson for Covid-19 Dr Rajesh Bhaskar accepted that there has been a rise in the number of cases in which immediate history could not be traced. “Contact tracing is a complex task and the health teams are putting best efforts in tracing all the contacts,” said Dr Bhaskar.
Citing the definition of community spread, Dr Paramjit Mann, general secretary, Indian Medical Association (IMA), Punjab asserted that a large number of untraceable cases makes it evident that there is community spread of virus in Punjab. He added that the health department needs to ensure that tracing of all the cases should be done.
Contact tracing, the most crucial process, is undertaken to identify the source of infection and track people with whom patients got in touch before testing positive. Tracing of transmission has become the Achilles heel of the state health authorities, leaving experts worried as it points out towards community transmission, which happens when there is no clear source of origin of the infection. The Punjab CM in recent weeks had been hinting at the possibility of community spread.
Since the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Punjab on March 1 to June 20, as many as 3,952 people have tested positive and the health department has failed to trace the transmission history of 450 of these cases, accounting for 11.38% of the total cases. The majority of untraceable cases have been reported in June and belong to Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar districts.
In the daily bulletin, the health department categorises the traceable cases — contacts of positive cases and travel history — and cases in which the infected person neither had travel history nor came in contact with a positive case are categorised as new cases. On June 19, 87 local cases were reported of which 57 were from Jalandhar alone and 16 such cases were reported on June 17.
Terming contact tracing a difficult task, Punjab health department spokesperson for Covid-19 Dr Rajesh Bhaskar accepted that there has been a rise in the number of cases in which immediate history could not be traced. “Contact tracing is a complex task and the health teams are putting best efforts in tracing all the contacts,” said Dr Bhaskar.
Citing the definition of community spread, Dr Paramjit Mann, general secretary, Indian Medical Association (IMA), Punjab asserted that a large number of untraceable cases makes it evident that there is community spread of virus in Punjab. He added that the health department needs to ensure that tracing of all the cases should be done.
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